Mexico - Political parties

From 1929 to 1997, the majority party and the only political group to
gain national significance was the Institutional Revolutionary Party
(Partido Revolucionario Institucional—PRI), formerly called the
National Revolutionary Party (Partido Nacional Revolucionario), and the
Party of the Mexican Revolution (Partido de la Revolución
Mexicana). The PRI includes only civilians and embraces all shades of
political opinion. Three large pressure groups operate within the PRI:
labor, the peasantry, and the "popular" sector (such as
bureaucrats, teachers, and small business people).

In the July 1997 elections, for the first time in nearly 70 years, the
PRI failed to retain a majority of seats in the 500-member lower house
of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies. Following the election, the PRI
had 239 seats; the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) had 125; 122
seats were controlled by the National Action Party (PAN); the Green
Ecological Party (PVEM) had 8; and the Workers Party (PT) had 6.

Of the major opposition parties, the PRD advocates active government
intervention in economic matters and questions close relations with the
United States, while PAN favors a reduced government role in the
economy, backs close ties with the United States, and is closely linked
to the Catholic Church.

Vicente Fox, of the conservative PAN party, was elected on 2 July 2000,
thereby ending over 70 years of PRI control. The PAN also became the
largest party in the 500-member Chamber of Deputies, with 223 seats. In
the Senate, the PRI won 60 seats in the 128-member Chamber. The PRD won
53 seats in the Chamber and 17 in the Senate. Thus, no party holds
majority control on either Chamber of the Mexican Congress. The results
of the 2003 midterm election were unlikely to change the divided
composition of Congress.

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